BRITAIN'S INTERNEES IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR By the same author LIFE IN RUSSIA UNDER CATHERINE THE GREAT THE LAST DAYS OF IMPERIAL RUSSIA PRISONERS OF ENGLAND BRITAIN'S INTERNEES IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Miriam Kochan © Miriam Kochan 1 g83 So ftc over reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1983 978-0-333-28995-2

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission

First published 1!)83 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world

ISBN 978-1-349-05485-5 ISBN 978-1-349-05483-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05483-1 Contents

List of Plates Vl Priface Vll The Characters in Order of Appearance lX Maps Xll

The Sheep and the Goats 2 The Greatest Possible Expedition 10 3 The Enemy Within I8 4 May Madness 22 5 The Paltriest Kitchen Maid 28 6 Escape to Freedom 33 7 First Stop: Kempton Park 37 8 Women and Children First 4I 9 Luxurious Idleness 46 IO Their Finest Hour 56 I I Porridge-chutists 63 I2 Huyton 67 I3 The Isle of Men (I) 76 14 The Turn of the Tide 84 I5 'Some Dominion' 93 I6 Dark Satanic Mill 97 I7 IO July 105 I8 Tale of a Tub I IO I9 The Swing Back II7 20 The Isle of Men (II) I25 2I The Way Out I39 22 Corn I 50 23 Holy Wedlock I 57 24 Under New Management I63

Epilogue I75 Bibliography I77 Index I78

v List of Plates

I 0 The October White Paper pointing the way out (HMSO) 2o (a) Marie Neurath; (b) Ulrich Skaller; (c) Ernst Manasse's Alien's Registration Book (HMSO) 30 (a) Heinz Kiewe today, with a poster of the Isle of Man 'University'; (b) May I940: internees enter Huyton Camp, near Liverpool, an unoccupied housing estate 40 (a) Huyton; (b) stuffing palliasses at Huyton (Fox Photos) 50 (a) and (b) May I940: women internees arrive at a London station o o oand leave for the Isle of Man (Fox Photos) 60 (a) Boarding houses, Douglas, Isle of Man, which formed part of a camp; (b) internees with a military guard on the Isle of Man (BBC Hulton Picture Library) 70 (a) Onchan, Isle of Man (BBC Hulton Picture Library); (b) women internees with their landlord and landlady at Port Erin, Isle of Man 80 A letter from Baruch Emanuel 90 A concert programme from an Australian camp roo Greetings to mother and baby from the men's camp on the Isle of Man I I o A page from the Onchan Pioneer I2o (a) An illustration from the Onchan Pioneer; (b) a sketch of Australian camp life by Felix Darnbacher I 30 The Australian order I4 and I5o A farewell card to an internee leaving I 60 The Jewish cemetery on the Isle of Man (courtesy of Motty Rivlin)

VI Preface

In I 933 the National Socialist Party came to power in Germany. Thereafter life became increasingly harsh for various sectors of the population: pacifists, liberals, Marxists, members of certain churches, gypsies, Jews, and others. From I 933 onwards the more percipient members of these groups began to leave Germany. Slow at first, the volume of emigration grew with each fresh phase ofNazi oppression: the Nuremberg race• laws of I 935; the Anschluss with Austria in March I 938; Kristallnacht, the night of the broken glass, in November I938 .... Some so,ooo of these emigrants came to Great Britain, many intending tore-emigrate to Palestine or the United States. A large number of them were penniless, though many had once held positions of considerable importance as scientists, scholars, teachers, journalists, or had enjoyed comfortable middle-class as doctors, dentists, lawyers, large-scale businessmen. Now they were strangers in a strange land speaking a strange language; in a word, they were . Innumerable committees sprang up in Britain to assist the settlement of the refugees, formed by, inter alia, the Quakers, the churches, academics and doctors. In I933 the Central British Fund for German Jewry was founded to help the largest single group involved. In I939 its manifold services to the refugees were carried out from Bloomsbury House, London. In I933 too, representative leaders of the Anglo-Jewish community promised the British government that it would meet all the expenses involved in accommodating and supporting the German Jewish refugees with• out ultimate charge to the state. This promise exerted some influence on the relationship between the refugees and their British hosts: there was sympathy tinged with suspicion on the one hand; gratitude tempered by insecurity on the other. The outbreak of war between Nazi Germany and Britain in

VII Vlll Priface

September 1939 changed the into an enemy alien and placed an unforeseen strain on the relationship (and on the promise). This book examines through the personal experiences of a few refugees the period of adjustment, with special reference to the bizarre episode of , until a new equilibrium was reached between Britain and its new citizens. This book would not have been written without their help. My most grateful thanks also go to Dr David Lewis for inestimable encouragement and assistance; to Elisabeth Bender for permission to utilise the unpublished monograph by Dr PaulJacobsthal, ofwhich she holds the copyright; to Bernard Beecham, Gerda Hoffer and the Jewish Agency Archives in Jerusalem; to Benjy and Nicholas Kochan in London, who helped me translate German and Latin material; and to Herbert Goldsmith in London and Motty Rivlin of the Isle of Man and Netanya for pictorial material.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright-holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. The Characters in Order of Appearance

MAC GOLDSMITH. Highly successful German engineer and indus• trialist, he and his wife finally settled in Britain in 1937· Interned 4 September 1939; released November 1939· Now retired, after a prestigious career, in Leicester. EDITH JACOBUS. Came to England with her husband and daughter from Germany in August 1936. Interned May 1940. She has remarried and lives in Leamington Spa. HENRY BERG. Came to England from Germany under a Zionist youth scheme in March 1939, following a period in Dachau concentration camp. Interned July 1940. He now lives in Oxford. PAUL JACOBSTHAL. Born 188o in Berlin; died 1957 in Oxford, where he was a Fellow of Christ Church. Interned July 1940; released September 1940. CHAIM RABIN. Went from Germany to Palestine and thence to England to study Hebrew and Arabic. Interned July 1940. He is now Professor of Hebrew at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. LEON FELDMAN. Came to England from Berlin in April 1939 on a children's transport. Interned June 1940; deported to Canada, where he was later released. He is now Professor of Hebraic Studies at Rutgers-the State University of New Jersey, and the founding rector of the Hochschule ftir J iidische Studien, Heidelberg, where he is an honorary professor. FELIX DARNBACHER. Came to England from Leipzig in 1933 as a schoolboy. Interned July 1940; deported to Australia; released in England to join the Pioneer Corps. He is now an architect living in Jerusalem. HEINZ KIEWE. Textile journalist living in Germany, he came to London in March 1933· Interned May 1940; released February 1941. He now owns a beautiful art-needlework shop in Oxford. PETER KATZ. Came to Britain from Germany via Holland as a

IX X The Characters in Order rif Appearance

schoolboy in 1934. Interned May 1940 aged sixteen; released to return to school in October 1940. He now lives in Oxford. BATY A EMANUEL. Her family left Germany in the 1930s to settle in Cardiff. Batya was still very young in 1940, but her father and one of her brothers were interned. She now lives in Jerusalem. 1AKOB FELSENSTEIN. Frankfurt solicitor, he came to England in Aprili933·lnternedJuly 1940; deported to Australia; released in England in July 1941. He died in Jerusalem in 1981. PASTOR ARNOLD EHRHARDT. Born Konigsberg 1903. Studied theology under Karl Barth in Basel after being forbidden to lecture in the law faculty at Frankfurt University in 1935. Came to England in July 1939; interned May 1940. He died in 1965 at Manchester, where he was Bishop Frazer Lecturer for Church History at the University. MARTIN OSTWALD. Came to England from Germany via the concentration camp ofSaxenhausen, on a children's transport in March 1939· Interned May 1940; deported to Canada, where he was released in 1942. He is now Professor of Classics at Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania, USA. ULRICH SKALLER. German timber-merchant, he came to England in October 1938. Interned May 1940; released August 1940. He now lives in retirement in Putney, London. EUGEN GLUECKAUF. Scientist, he left Germany for England in 1933· Interned May 1940; released October 1940. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and worked as a consultant for the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Oxon. He died in 1981. MOSES ABERBACH. Came to England in December 1938 on a children's transport. Interned May 1940; released July 1940. He is now a professor at the Baltimore Hebrew College, USA. KURT AND FREDA. Escaped from Germany via Holland in May 1940. Immediately interned; released August 1942. They now live in Leicester. MARIE NEURATH. Escaped with fiance Otto Neurath on the same boat as Kurt and Freda and interned on arrival. Released in February 1941. She is now widowed and lives in London. DR H. A doctor in a Vienna hospital, she came to England on a domestic permit via Denmark in 1938. Interned May 1940. She now lives in London. KLAUS LOEWALD. Came from Berlin to England. Interned June 1940; deported to Australia, where he was released to join the The Characters in Order of Appearance XI

Australian Army in August I 942. He now teaches history at the University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales. JULIUS CARLEBACH. Left Hamburg in December 1938 and came on a children's transport to England. Interned june I940; released October 1940. He now teaches sociology at the University of Sussex. ERNST MAN ASSE. Came to England from Germany on a Zionist youth scheme in March I939 after a sojourn in Dachau concentration camp. Interned july I940; released October I940. He is now retired and lives in Oxford. RUDI GUTTMAN. Sent to school in England from Germany in I934· Interned July I940; deported to Australia; released in Britain early in I 94 I to join the Pioneer Corps. Now an engineer living in Tel Aviv. ERICH MARK. Came to England from Germany as a young boy. Interned June I940; released October I940. Now lives in Belgium. HENRY PRAIS. Came to Britain in 1939 with a Zionist youth group on an agricultural permit. Interned july 1940; released December I940. Now a retired Professor of French living in Jerusalem. xu Maps

Scale 1 : 5,000,000

Bury Liverpool • • Manchester Huyton Prees Heath •

Sutton •Goldfield

London Kempton Park • •

MAP 1 Map showing the sites of the internment-camps in Great Britain Maps Xlll

0

MAP 2 Map showing the sites of the internment-camps on the Isle of Man